Jazz this week: Defrancesco, Shaw and Person, Randy Holmes Quintet, Dave Black Trio and more

Marlena Shaw, Houston Person
and Joey DeFrancesco

Thanks to some ninth inning heroics on Monday night by Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals are still alive in the playoffs, and that means this week a lot of people in town will be thinking about baseball instead of live music. But even though baseball may have a large chunk of the public mindshare, there are still some tempting jazz gigs this week, too.

For starters, Jazz at the Bistro has assembled a trio of headliners for a all-star soul-jazz extravaganza of sorts, teaming the Hammond organ stylings of Joey DeFrancesco with vocalist Marlena Shaw and saxophonist Houston Person for a four-night run beginning Wednesday.

DeFrancesco is one of the best jazz organists around, and, by virtue of his duets with the late Jimmy Smith, probably the closest thing we've got to an officially anointed successor to the departed master of the B-3. He's headlined gigs at the Bistro and elsewhere in St. Louis all on his own, and if you like organ jazz, is unquestionably worth the price of admission even without the additional incentives of Shaw's sultry vocals and Person's bluesy tenor sax.

It's also a nice touch that they've dedicated the weekend to Leo Chears, longtime jazz DJ for many local radio stations known by the nickname "The Man in The Red Vest". Chears has been ailing in recent years, severely limiting his on-air work, but his good taste in tunes and suave yet enthusiastic on-air style have helped many St. Louisans get acquainted with jazz music over the course of his long career.

Elsewhere in town, on Thursday night guitarist Dave Black leads a trio in a program of his original tunes at Pop's Blue Moon, a smallish neighborhood-tavern-turned-hipster-hangout on The Hill. With an eclectic live music policy, Pop's isn't exactly a jazz venue, but the cozy room should be conducive to a good-sounding show as long as the crowd isn't too rowdy.

On Friday, trumpeter Randy Holmes, a fine player in the hard bop style, brings his Quintet to Cookie's Jazz and More in Webster Groves. As a member of Hard Bop Heritage, Holmes used to gig regularly on Sunday nights at BB's, but I haven't seen too many recent shows in the club listings under his leadership, so this would seem to be a prime opportunity to check out what he's doing these days.

(And in the interests of full disclosure, I should also mention that I'll be at Cookie's myself this weekend, backing singers Uvee Hayes and Roland Johnson as part of one of the club's periodic nights of blues music. Guitarist Tom Maloney is the bandleader, with Jimmy Hinds on bass, Eric McSpadden on harmonica, Keith Robinson on drums and yr. humble editor/narrator on keyboards. It's a good band, and it should be a good time, but it's not a jazz gig, so consider yourself warned.)

Of course, many other local favorites are also in action this week, and you can find out more by visiting the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar. And, as always, if you're a musician or venue who would like to have your gig listed in the calendar, and perhaps even hyped in a future weekly highlights post, email your info to me at stljazznotes at yahoo dot com.